Understanding Financial Documents

Every year IMRF publishes detailed financial reports needed by your employer and auditors. The financial documents produced include information about IMRF’s financial position results of the prior fiscal year, and your individual employer’s pension plans.

Generally, these documents capture information for the prior year (January 1 to December 31) and are ready for you in May or June. Employers will be notified via the Employer Digest when these documents are available.

Why does IMRF produce these documents?

Within these annual financial documents, as custodian of the pension plan, IMRF provides accounting of the amount of money employers have in their reserves as well as an actuarial breakdown of expected costs.

Additionally, IMRF also provides audited information about its investment income, contributions, and expenses. This verifies that accounting standards as well as best practices are being followed.

What standards are being used?

IMRF follows Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as required by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) for its financial statements. This is done to meet and ensure best practices are being followed and all financial information can be independently opined upon by our auditors.

What documents get produced?

The following documents are available in our Annual Financial Reports or Reports for Employers:

• Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)
• Detailed List of Investments
• Actuarial Valuation
• Gain/Loss Analysis
• Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR)

Financial documents specific to your employer are created and shared securely in Employer Access. Below is a list of the documents you can find in the “Document Viewer” section of Employer Access:

• GASB 68 - Schedule of Change Fiduciary Net Position by Employer
• GASB 68 - Actuary Report with a copy for Regular, SLEP and ECO Pension Plans (as applicable)
• GASB 68 - IMRF SOC 1 Type-2 Report
• GASB 68 - Census Data – Attestation Report
• GASB 68 - GRS & IMRF Reconciliation Adjustments Schedule
• GASB 50
• Rate Notices

What is the difference between the GASB 68 and GASB 50 reports?

The GASB 68 report details your employers’ net pension liability for your pension plan(s) (Regular, SLEP, and/or ECO). This report looks at the assets and liabilities of your employer, their current employees AND former employees; inactives and retirees on the market value of assets. Because GASB 68 calculations include your retirees – whose pensions are 100% funded – your employer’s overall funded ratio will be higher under GASB 68 than GASB 50.

If your employer prepares its financial statements according to GAAP, it must use the data in its GASB 68 report, not the data within the GASB 50.

GASB 50 provides the funded status of your employer’s IMRF Plan(s) under the actuarial value of assets. This includes three-year trend of data that shows whether your employer’s pension assets are increasing or decreasing in relation to its pension liabilities. GASB 50 only includes assets and liabilities of your employer and their current employees. The report DOES NOT include assets and liabilities related to former employees who have retired under IMRF.

If your employer does not prepare its financial statements according to GAAP, it may use the data in its GASB 50 report instead of the data within GASB 68.

Other documents also are listed under “GASB 68” in Employer Access. What are they?

The SOC 1- Type 2 is another report required by the GASB for GASB 68 reporting. This report evaluates the processes and internal controls in place at IMRF to ensure that the data it provides to employers is accurate.

The Schedule Changes in Fiduciary Net Position by Employer lists the additions and deductions as well as the opening and ending net position for IMRF by each employer. Just like IMRF’s ACFR, this schedule is opined by our auditors so that each employer’s auditors can rely on the information provided.

The Census Data – Attestation Report provides the auditor opinion as to the completeness and accuracy of the census data provided to the plan auditors.

The GRS & IMRF Reconciliation Adjustments Schedule help employers and their auditors to reconcile the most commonly found variances between the amounts listed in GRS’s GASB 68 Report(s) and IMRF’s Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position by Employer. Adjustment amounts in this schedule include:

• Voluntary Additional (VA) contributions
• VA expenses (refunds and benefits)
• VA reserve balances

These amounts are included in IMRF’s Schedule of Changes but not included in the GASB 68 report from IMRF’s actuary.

If you follow GASB 68 rules for your financial reporting, IMRF developed a spreadsheet to help you reconcile information included in the following documents: Your GASB 68 Report(s), the IMRF Schedule of Changes in Fiduciary Net Position by Employer, and the GRS vs. IMRF Reconciliation Adjustments Schedule. You can find this spreadsheet here.